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The west is just too strong this year with 10 teams competing for 8 playoff spots. The way I see it only two teams from the northwest will make the playoffs. If I had to put money on it I'd lean towards the Jazz and Nuggets. They have more experience and more overall talent.

The Blazers really shouldn't be in the position that they are in and have immensly overachieved up until this point. All the other western powers are where they should be. The Hornets were a good team last year until Paul went down with an inury.

After watching the Hornets/Blazers matchup this week I saw how impotent the Blazers offense becomes if you jump out on picks for Brandon Roy. Aldridge is a good player but does not machup well with other forwards and centers of more dominant teams.

I expect the Blazers to go into extended losing streaks and soon begin to approach .500. There year will still be considered a success and they will have enthused fans looking forward to next year with Oden.

we won't know until the season is over

not again

hermes wrote:we won't know until the season is over

ok.

Judging the current state of the Blazers based on the last game of a gruelling 7 game road trip might not be indicative of their chances. The Hornets are the best team in the west as well.

I think it is probable.

Possibly. They're by no means a lock for the playoffs, but they have as good a chance as making the playoffs as many of the other teams in the West (Houston, Utah, Golden State).

yunggunz wrote:not again

QFT.

It's just too early to tell right now. The West is just packed too tightly. A week of good games out West you're in the Top 4, a week of bad games and you're a 9th or 10th seed.

At the end of the day i think Portland and Golden State will be out...but i hope not i like those 2 teams but Utah and Houston are heating up.

I'm sorry I just don't see them falling off like that. On top of that they are playing in the west and causing are 3 Power House teams problems. Lets face it everybody over looked them and now were paying for it. They are for real and if they were in the east they would be a lock for 3rd no mater what. Yeah I'm saying that they would knock Cleveland to the bottom 4 in the playoff standings as well as the Wizards. So before you just go and say that they are playing out of the norm. You need to worry about the Heat and how they thought they stole Shaq away from the Lakers while Pat Damn Riley was being interviewed for the head coach job for the Lakers. Karma is a BIG B***H isn't it. The Lakers knew Shaq wasn't gonna last long you got two years out of him and thats all. Just deal with it your team sucks and you want to blame everybody else.

hell YEA!!!

they got more heart than houston...they'll be #8 but will make it..will come down to the last few games..but i believe...

I'm not so sure, right now they are tied with the Jazz and honestly I see the Jazz winning more games then them through out the rest of the season. Maybe if the Nuggets go down with some injuries then they could fall out of the playoffs, but I don't see the Warriors falling out unless the injury bug bites them too.

My guess is a big ol 9th seed for the Blazers this season.

last night's loss to a "heartless" Houston team sure didn't help.

note - heat suck. figure id get that out of the way before you get another poster that decides to off topic.

Blazers run seems to be coming to an end. They dont have the offensive firepower to seriously challenge the West conf playoff teams. There 2 main scorers are Aldrige and Roy. While Roy is very good he can be marginalized if you step out on picks set for him. Basically this offense is doo-doo if you get the ball out of Roy's hand. Also if Outlaw was as good as some people cliam then he'd be a starter. Especially when Webster has trouble reaching 10 ppg.

They are basically having a Milwaukee Brewers type of season. Start off hot. Challenge everyone's belief and threaten to realign the power balance in the league. Start to cool off and drop from the playoff race.

Yeah after watching last night's game against Houston I noticed how stagnant the Blazers offense becomes when you jump the pNr with Roy. They have a lot of deadly shooters, but Roy seems like the only one who consistently attacks. The WC race is too tight, and there's too much basketball left to be able to make an accurate prediction though.

they can't hang with Houston, no chance they can hang with the other powerhouses in the West. Blazers are a jumpshooting team, live and die by making shots, Roy is their only attacker.

It now seems like GS is on a roll, while the Blazers are struggling since they now enter the tough road part of the schedule. I predict that GS will hold on to the 7th or maybe go up to 6th and the Blazers, Jazz, and Rockets fight for the 8th.